केवलं परमं दैन्यमवलम्ब्यास्य शिक्षया ।
श्रीमन्मदनगोपालचरणाब्जमुपासत ॥
kevalaṁ paramaṁ dainyam avalambyāsya śikṣayā |
śrīman-madana-gopāla-caraṇābjam upāsata ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.153)
“According to his [i.e., Nārada’s] teaching, they [i.e., the sages in Prayāga] took recourse to pure and profound humility and worshipped the lotus feet of Śriman Madana Gopāla.”
Commentary
nanv avastu-tyāgena kā nāma sāra-saṁgrāhitety āśaṅkyāha—kevalam iti | dainyaṁ nijākṛtārthatvādi-jñānena bhagavat-pāda-padma-bhakty-abhāvādinā vā yārttis tat kevalam āśritya tenaiva bhagavad-anugraha-bhara-siddheḥ |
(Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā)
“[A question may be raised:] ‘Well, after giving up the insubstantial, what was accepted [by them] as the essence?’ Expecting this [question], this verse is spoken (kevalam …). They took recourse purely to humility (dainya), that is, the heartache (ārti) of awareness of one’s own unsuccessfulness and so forth, or, of one’s lack of bhakti to the lotus feet of Bhagavān and so forth, because only by this does an abundance of Bhagavān’s grace become manifest.”